Thin is the new black, with Lenovo launching its own ultra-skinny notebook in Australia this week.

Lenovo's ThinkPad X300 "Kodachi" notebook is just under 19mm at its thinnest point, which is about as thick as the MacBook Air at its thickest point. Both notebooks measure 13.3 inches and weigh in at 1.3 kg. Like the MacBook Air, the X300 also features a 64 GB solid state hard drive.

At $AU3,999, the X300 comes in at around $300 cheaper than the high-end MacBook Air with the solid state drive, yet it comes with a lot of extra features.

The X300 features a bulit-in DVD burner, which is in a Multibay slot so it can be swapped out for a second battery. It also features Gigabit Ethernet, three USB ports, optional docking station, optional built-in mobile broadband - all the things the MacBook Air sorely lacks. Whereas the MacBook Air is probably best employed as a secondary on-the-road companion, the X300 looks like it could be your everyday workhorse. Still, the X300's LV SL7100 processor has less grunt than the MacBook Air so I'll reserve final judgement until I get my review unit.

Of course the X300 has got as much chance of killing the MacBook Air and your average two-bit MP3 player has of slaying the iPod. I blame Windows. As an owner of a ThinkPad T60 running Windows XP and a black MacBook running Leopard, I know which machine I turn to when I need a computer that "just works". Apple OSX is more stable and user-friendly than Windows could ever hope to be - the benefit of hardware and software designed specifically for each other.

Still, my ThinkPad has a lot going for it hardware-wise, for example Multibay is brilliant and I prefer the Think Pad's keyboard to the MacBook. Sometimes I dream of combining them into some kind of fantasy Mac-Pad. Laugh if you will, but running Leopard on the X300 would be my dream ultra-portable notebook. ThinkPads are the Volvo station wagon of notebooks - boring, sturdy and reliable. The MacBook Air is the Ferrari sports car - beautiful to look at but not all that practical. Gates and Jobs are more likely to announce their secret marriage than they are a Mac-Pad running bizarro Bootcamp, but I reckon it would offer the best of both worlds.

The lack of mobile broadband access means the iPod Touch's internet features are of little use when you're away from a wifi network, but Remote Buddy gives it a full time job at home as a universal remote control.

Of course "universal" only stretches as far as Apple devices, but if you're drinking the Cupertino Kool-Aid then the Apple ecosystem is the universe, isn't it? Anyway, Remote Buddy lets you control every aspect of your Mac from a range of devices but, if you're using an iPhone or iPod Touch they can even act as a wireless keyboard and trackpad. Awesome.

Combine a dual core Mac Mini, Elgato's EyeTV, the IceTV EPG, an iPod Touch and Remote Buddy and you've got yourself the mother of all media centres to sit at the heart of your digital lounge room - with change from $AU2000.

Suddenly I'm looking at the iPod Touch in a whole new light, considering the entry level model is $AU399 and you'd pay that much for a universal remote control with far less features. Apple has a tendency to produce art -- products that are beautiful but useless outside the US (yes Apple TV, I'm looking at you). In my eyes it takes something like Remote Buddy to make the iPod Touch a real value proposition. Even so, Apple's latest iPod Touch software upgrade only serves to highlight the fact it's not an iPhone - but more on that next time.

If you spend your days behind the wheel, a good Bluetooth car kit is essential.

It's now illegal in many places to talk on a mobile phone while driving, unless you're using a hands free kit. Considering the cost of just one fine would pay for a decent Bluetooth car kit, it's worth buying one even if you'd only use it occasionally.

There's no shortage of Bluetooth car kits on the market but the best I've seen of late are the Motorola T505 and the Bluetrek Surface Sound Compact Bluetooth car kit.

The lads from Motorola always like to pull out a swag of Bluetooth gear whenever we catch up for coffee and last week it was the MOTOROKR T505, a combination Bluetooth speaker and FM transmitter. The beauty of the T505 is it can take the audio from your Bluetooth mobile phone or MP3 player and transmit it to your FM car radio. It's got a big clip on the back for attaching to your car's sun visor.

Audio Caller ID means the T505 will read aloud the number of an incoming call, and you can listen to the audio from the device's speaker or through your car stereo. It even reads aloud the station that it's transmitting on, so you don't need to take your eyes off the road to check. Don't fret if your MP3 player isn't blessed with Bluetooth, as Motorola also sells an iPod Bluetooth adaptor that works with all iPods except the Shuffle.

There are lots of cool uses for the T505, but I reckon one of the best would be to connect to a phone with sat-nav software and have it read aloud driving instructions through your car stereo. It would also make it easy to listen to podcasts in the car or even internet radio, assuming your monthly bandwidth allowance could cope.

The Bluetrek Surface Sound Compact Bluetooth car kit doesn't have an FM transmitter, but it impressed me because it's the thinnest Bluetooth speaker I've seen. It's the size of a large PDA, but only a few millimetres thick, and clips onto your car's sun visor. The large clip and lightweight design reduces the chances of it coming free in an accident, while the flat surface with rounded corners means you're unlikely to hurt yourself should you smack your head on it.

I feared the compact design might mean sacrificing sound quality, but it was excellent on both ends of the call. The flat, all-black design also makes it difficult for thieves to spot, so you can leave it in the car.

What's your device of choice when it comes to hands free calling? What new features would you like to see?

If your world relies on mobile gadgets, then you live and die by your battery life.

The battery life on smartphones and notebooks is certainly improving, but it seems no matter how many hours we can squeeze out of a device we always want a few more. One of the complaints I've read about the MacBook Air is that it seems to have a woeful battery life of less than three hours. I should be getting a review unit this week so I can test it out for myself, but I think you're entitled to be disappointed with less than three hours for a device that's supposedly all about mobility. I manage to squeeze about five hours out of my MacBook.

For many people the solution to battery life problems is to carry around a spare for their phone and notebook but, once again, Apple-lovers are left wanting.

You can't easily swap out the battery in either the iPhone or the MacBook Air, much to the frustration of road warriors. At the other end of the scale, something like my Lenovo ThinkPad T60 is clearly designed with maximum battery life in mind. You can replace the supplied battery with a longer-life version, plus you can even switch out the optical drive and replace it with a second battery. Were you to lug around all three batteries, you could easily go 10 hours without needing a power point.

Yes, I know the ThinkPad and the MacBook Air are targeted at a slightly different markets, but I would think battery life is a universal concern. The holy grail for notebooks seems to be going a whole work day on a single charge, but there's only a handful of computers, from the likes of Sony and Lenovo, that can actually deliver this. As for smartphones, it's harder to know what people expect - but having to charge up your phone every day would be frustrating. I get four or five days out of my JasJam, but admittedly I'm not a heavy user.

What do you call an acceptable battery life for a smartphone or a notebook? Would the inability to switch batteries put you off buying a device?

eBooks are one of those technologies that have been "the next big thing" for years but never quite seems to hit the big time. They're basically books in an electronic format, designed to be read on portable devices capable of storing hundreds of novels. Think of it like an iPod for your book collection.

This week the eBook is making another big push, with two of Britain's biggest publishers, Random House and Hachette, revealing they're ready to offer eBooks by some of their top writers such as Ian McEwen and Delia Smith.

What's holding eBooks back? The lack of devices? The lack of content? The fact that people are still attached to DTM (Dead Tree Medium)?

I'd say it's a combination of all those factors, even though individually they don't stand up. There are plenty of eBook-compatible devices around, and a few have have had good reviews and plenty of publicity. Amazon US is plugging the Kindle eBook reader on the front page of the site, although it retails for $US399 - for which you can buy a hell of a lot of paperbacks. The Sony Reader is slightly more affordable at $US299.

The iLiad looks interesting and has had good reviews - it doesn't use a traditional LCD screen so it's supposed to be easier on the eyes. Still, at a whopping $US699, it's not going to make it into many Christmas stockings.

Technology-wise these eBook readers may be up to the the task, but I can't see them going mainstream until they can get down to the $US100 mark - which won't happen until they go mainstream. It's the classic chicken and egg conundrum. Perhaps a new player will step in to revolutionise the market, like Apple did with the iPod.

I don't think lack of content is a major issue, but it really depends which format you're after. It seems that a lot of the new books on Amazon have a Kindle edition option. It might take yet another format war before the Book takes off, which could get ugly considering Sony is one of the players. Sony's trash-talking would make Muhammad Ali blush - just ask the poor suckers in the HD DVD camp. Which eBook format or device is technically superior won't matter if it comes down to a marketing war. Maybe porn is the killer app for eBooks, considering people seem keen to carry around erotic home movies in their pockets.

Of course the final question is, do people actually want to ditch paper for an eBook? If you're reading this blog you'll probably say yes because you're more tech-savvy than Joe Public. Still, until Joe Public wants the eBook it's always going to be a niche product.

Are we a nation of mobile gamers, or are we actually using handheld consoles to watch movies?

The handheld Nintendo DS was the highest selling games console in Australia last Christmas, coming in ahead of the house-bound Wii and PS2. The interesting thing is that handheld consoles like the Nintendo DS and the PlayStation PSP also double as portable media players, like an video iPod. I'm wondering how many people sitting on the train with a handheld games console are using it to listen to music or watch a video rather than play a game.

I'm not saying that adults don't play electronic games - I realise there are plenty of thirty-something gamers out there who grew up with the early games consoles and still love their gaming. Still, the only people I see around with a Nintendo DS are kids. Admittedly I don't catch public transport as often as I once did, but I would have thought iPods and mobile phones were the gadgets of choice for commuters.

So who is buying all these Nintendo DSes and what are they doing with them? Are we a nation of mobile gamers?

It seems like an obvious life rule, but time and again people get caught out when their home movies fall into the wrong hands. Paris Hilton springs to mind - although I reckon the photos stolen from her Sidekick a few years ago looked a little too good to be "accidentally" leaked.

The latest "dude, where's my porn?" saga involves Hong Kong pop icon Edison Chen and a few of his celebrity friends. Chen took his customised pink MacBook in for a service, forgetting that it had photos and video clips of him having a very good time with at least six women, including a few pop singers. The home-made adventures quickly found their way to the web and the predictable media frenzy ensued. When will people learn?

Why do people feel the need to carry around their home-made porn with them? Do they get bored on the bus? Don't they have a backlog of Lost and Underbelly BitTorrent downloads to catch up on? Is it in case they quickly need an audition tape for Big Brother, or someone asks for references before agreeing to jump in the sack?

There was a time when everyone had a porn buddy - a designated friend who, if you were hit by a bus, would drive around to your house and dispose of your porn before your Mum cleaned out your belongings. Sadly it seems the porn buddy system is obsolete.

Secretly I reckon people want their home-made sex romps to be leaked. Deep down every guy dreams of being a porn star, just like he fantasises of being a gangster or a rock god. We all want our 15 inches of fame, even if it's just in our heads.

What's on your notebook or mobile phone that you pretend you don't want anyone else to see?

Fabric computers with screens made of e-paper will help meet the public's appetite for tiny computers, says Fujitsu design guru Kenichi Kimura.

Designer of Fujitsu's tiny LifeBook 1010, Kimura flew in from Japan this week to show off a few of his tiny concept PCs that are yet to hit the production line. He was accompanied by a translator, but even I could pick out the word "origami" as he talking about folding, bending and twisting the tiny computers of tomorrow.

Kimura's job isn't an easy one, with people expecting him to bend the laws of physics by designing small computers with big screens and keyboards. Chatting over coffee, he often drew an analogy with bamboo - talking about computers that bend without breaking.

The silver "origami concept" (pictured above) is a mock up that starts off the size of a CD case but about three times as thick. The top layer folds upwards to reveal a 5 inch screen, underneath which sits a basic keyboard featuring cursor and multimedia buttons. Along the left side is even a optical drive slot and earphone jack. If all you wanted to do was listen to music or watch a movie you could stop here and hold it in both hands like a Gameboy. You could even fold it back up, slip it into your bag and continue to listen to music via the earphones jack or bluetooth.

Yet for those times when only a full keyboard will do, the multimedia keyboard folds open to the right to reveal a decent size QWERTY keyboard. Small computer, big keyboard. Very nice.

The "fabric concept" isn't as small, but the fact it's covered in soft black material and uses flexible e-paper for a display increases its chances of survival in the rough and tumble of life on the road. Even Kimura confesses he's not sure if it can actually be built, but luckily for him that's an engineer's problem. I'd love to see it go one step further, folding in half again after you close the keyboard.

While Kimura has the luxury of dreaming up gadgets that seem to defy the laws of physics, he's realistic enough to acknowledge that such tiny devices are unlikely to meet a user's every need. He views them as a secondary purchase, like the Asus Eee PC or the Apple MacBook Air, rather than your primary computing device.

Kimura's concepts are very cool, but what does your dream computing companion look like?

Scientists are harnessing the power of walking to ensure your phone will never run flat again.

A knee brace developed by US and Canadian scientists generates enough power to charge up to 10 mobile phones at once, according to a report in the journal Science. It collects the energy lost when a person brakes their knee after swinging their leg forward to take a step, the researchers said. The prototype is still a little hefty at 1.6 kg, but they hope to strip it down to something more manageable.

Strapping a mini power plant to your leg opens up all kinds of possibilities, assuming you're prepared to get off your backside and do some walking.

Apart from your mobile phone, you could potentially charge up your digital camera, iPod or even a sub-notebook. It certainly makes a lot more sense than wearing a sombrero covered in solar panels, plus it's a little less conspicuous when you go to meetings. Still, I think you'd have to walk a hell of a long way to charge up your taser/MP3 player.

Such an invention sounds like a great way to keep fit whilst saving the planet. For a fat, fossil fuel-sucking blogger like me that's a tick in every box. Imagine if we put one on the neck of everyone banging their head against a wall trying to get Vista to work - you could power the eastern seaboard for a month.

As always, there will be dark forces at work to ensure this technology doesn't get past the first step (we all know who holds back the electric car). For starters, you can bet the battery mafia won't like it. Expect to see the Energizer Bunny knee-capping people in the street as a warning to the rest of us.

The Walkie-Chargie(TM) could be just the tip of the iceberg. What other bodily functions can we harness in order to save the planet?

If Apple wants to make headway in the business market, why doesn't it offer a docking station for Mac notebooks?

A docking station lets you sit your notebook on your desk and, with one cable, hook it up to power and Ethernet plus a monitor, keyboard, mouse and whatever other gadgets you have sitting in your office. Now you can use your notebook as if it were a desktop, which is much better for your back and your neck.

Many business-focused notebooks, such as Lenovo's ThinkPads, have a docking station port on the underside so you can fit it in the dock and everything connects automatically. Apple prides itself on leading with new features, so why is it so far behind Windows world in this case?

Having recently switched from a ThinkPad T60 running XP Pro to a MacBook running Leopard, I must say I don't miss my daily battles with Windows. I do however miss my docking station. Setting up my desk to play nicely with my new arrival is starting to look complicated and expensive. Just another 60 watt MagSafe power adaptor is going to cost me $AU129.

All I've been able to find in the way of dedicated Mac docking stations is the BookEndz, which would do the job but I have to admit it makes me a bit nervous. Look at the design (pictured) and you can see that it's fitted with seven plugs which slide into the seven sockets on the left side of a MacBook. That's a lot of bits that can accidentally bend or snap off, which is exactly what happened to a colleague of mine. What I want is one simple plug that connects up everything.

Unfortunately the MacBook doesn't feature a PCMCIA or ExpressCard slot so the Targus and Belkin High Speed Docking Stations are out. It looks like I'll be forced to cobble together a solution that still requires separate cables for the monitor and power. At this point I may as well stick with a separate cable for Ethernet and just use a cheap USB hub to connect up the keyboard and mouse. Far from elegant, and frustrating considering Apple prides itself on offering elegant solutions.

Kensington recently announced the Mac-compatible sd200v USB2.0 docking station, which looks promising, although it only offers VGA rather than DVI and reports are the video is still sluggish. Apple is rumoured to be working on a funky docking station that lets you mount a Mac notebook as if it were an iMac, but all indications are it would be designed for a new Mac sub-notebook and not my MacBook.

I've got a few options to experiment with but I'm still astounded Apple hasn't addressed the issue. What do other Mac notebook owners do when it comes to integrating their machine with their desk?

With Kodak boasting about its 5 megapixel camera-phone chip, is it time to throw away your compact digital camera?

Remember when 3 megapixels was considered the minimum spec for a decent compact digital camera? Dinky camera phones with their VGA sensors were laughed at as novelties. Times have changed.

There are already 5 megapixel camera-phones available from the likes of Sony Ericsson, but Kodak researchers are presenting a new type of sensor technology for mobile phones at the International Sold-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco. Rather than detecting light, the new sensors aim to improve picture quality by detecting the absence of light. Sounds freaky, but Kodak reckons it produces less noise than conventional sensors.

I'm all for less noise in my photos, but it will be interesting to see if the result is enough to encourage serious photographers to leave their cameras at home. I doubt it.

Anyone who knows cameras knows there's more to a good photo than pixel count. It's more about lenses and the size of the sensor, issues that are difficult to address in a tiny device that's already busy trying to be a phone, music player and PDA. That's why you're generally better off buying a digital cameras from vendors with a background in cameras (ie Canon and Nikon) than those with a background in computers. There are a few exceptions, such as Sony's Cybershot range, but it's generally a good rule of thumb.

Anyway, camera phones might be fine for taking happy snaps to stick on MySpace but are they up to the task of capturing those precious moments you want to print and hang on the wall? Have you abandoned your compact digital camera for your mobile phone? Is it up to the task?

Online retail giant Amazon intends to start selling music downloads through its non-US sites this year, offering a catalogue of 3.3 million songs as DRM-free MP3 files. Besides the U.S., Amazon has online stores in the U.K., Germany, Japan, France, Canada and China - but there's no word yet as to which countries will get the Amazon MP3 service.

The public backlash against Digital Rights Management saw the iTunes store introduce DRM-free tracks last year, but at premium prices. Amazon sells DRM-free MP3 tracks for less than the iTunes Stores' DRM-infected AAC tracks. Is it enough to win customers away from Apple?

Another advantage of Amazon's music store is that it doesn't rely on desktop software the way the iTunes Store relies on iTunes. Still, if you choose to install the optional Amazon MP3 Downloader, you can automatically add MP3 downloads to your iTunes or Windows Media Player libraries. Amazon MP3 Downloader is currently only available for Windows and Mac OS, but Amazon has said that a Linux version is coming - another advantage over iTunes.

Despite all the apparent advantages of Amazon MP3 over the iTunes Store, the US iTunes Store obviously hasn't collapsed since Amazon MP3 launched in the US in September. If anyone ever stood a chance of stealing the iTunes Store's crown, you'd think it would be Amazon. Is it a question of consumer awareness? Is it simply a matter of convenience for iPod owners to stick with the iTunes Store? Does the iTunes Store have that special something that just keeps people coming back?

Are you an iTunes Store or Amazon MP3 shopper? What would it take to lure you elsewhere?

Sat-nav might get you from A to B, but the SUNA traffic channel lets you avoid the traffic along the way.

Sydney's F3 traffic chaos provided the perfect opportunity this week for Intelematics Australia to spruik the merits of its SUNA Traffic Channel, an implementation of the TMC (Traffic Message Channel) standard. SUNA works by monitoring the traffic light control systems to identify traffic congestion, assisted by "probe vehicles" deployed in known congested areas. In other words, someone gets paid to sit in traffic jams so you don't have to - there's a contender for world's worst job.

Anyway, all this data is then transmitted to compatible in-car sat-nav systems via FM radio, warning drivers of what lies ahead. The service is already live in Melbourne and is coming to Sydney and Brisbane mid-year. Having tested a few sat-nav systems, I'd say the SUNA Traffic Channel sounds like a must-have.

While in-car systems are designed to show you the "quickest" or "shortest" route to a destination, they don't take into consideration the time of day and the traffic conditions. For example, motorists should avoid schools at all costs around 3pm, but your average sat-nav system will happily drive you into traffic chaos if a school or two happens to lie between you and your destination. This forces you to use common sense and ignore your electronic copilot, which kind of defeats the purpose.

You can't expect the SUNA Traffic Channel to monitor the traffic conditions in every suburban back street, but it's certainly a step in the right direction. Along with the ability to read street names aloud, I'd say SUNA is a must-have when choosing a sat-nav companion to ride shotgun as you make your way across town. What other features would you like to see included in the next generation of in-car sat-nav devices?